Full-Contact Matches in SF Bay Area?

[cerebus]

Hey, anyone interested in maybe giving me a ride into the city so I can meet & talk with Doc Andy and Zhong Luo? Omar, does the doc work weekends? I really don't feel like takin' my little 500 cc Ninja over the Bay Bridge if I can help it, and I suspect that anyone who might be able to give me a lift would only be available on weekends (if anyone CAN give me a lift).

I might be interested in some non-grappling, bare-knuckle matches as well as more conventional stuff.

[CaliG]

I agree with Greg. Joining a club rather than doing the park thing will present you with many more opportunities for sparring. In some ways, you gotta pay if you want to play, but you'll also be able to train regularly with folks who will help you get better. Also, if you are doing the cage fights, you might want to fine tune your escapes/defenses from the ground. It's a whole 'nother ballgame on the ground.

-pete

Speaking of kickboxing and the ground game...Pete I just figured out who your BJJ instructor is.

I knew Mickey'O back in the day. We both started out as white belts together when Ralph opened the SF academy. Out of about a 100 of us he was the first to get his blue belt.

He was a professional kickboxer and he was invited to fight an NHB match (as they were called back then). Within a minute he got armbarred and tapped. He asked his coach what happened and his coach said, "You're just lucky you tapped or that guy would have broke your arm."

Needless to say he was hooked and training with Ralph.

I got a lot of respect for that guy because he could have easily just continued to do and teach kickboxing but instead he took on a whole new art and rode it out to the end.

It's good to know he's doing well. I remember when I'd roll with him I couldn't do anything with him because he's just counter my every move, I imagine that's even more the case now that he's a blackbelt.

Good times,

G

[fuga]

Greg,

You've been at the BJJ for a while then.

Mikkyo is a great teacher (extremely detail oriented) and very smooth on the mat. He's got both kickboxing and bjj classes at the school and his purple belts who help teach are quality. He builds folks up slowly with a good foundation of basics, basics, basics.

Greg, what belt are you? Now I know when I come out to train with you that I'll largely be working on perfecting my tapping.

-pete

[CaliG]

Greg,

You've been at the BJJ for a while then.

Mikkyo is a great teacher (extremely detail oriented) and very smooth on the mat. He's got both kickboxing and bjj classes at the school and his purple belts who help teach are quality. He builds folks up slowly with a good foundation of basics, basics, basics.

Greg, what belt are you? Now I know when I come out to train with you that I'll largely be working on perfecting my tapping.

-pete

Well at the time I was cross training in IMAs and judo so I wasn't dedicating as much time to BJJ as I am now. But I thought it was important to know some ground fighting so I stuck with it. I believe Mikkyo was there everyday and sometimes twice a day at that. Being that he was already teaching kickboxing (as I recall) I think he set up his schedule to get a lot of training in.

I know everytime I was there he was there. I even remember when he was a white belt and started tapping bluebelts, I couldn't believe it I thought was blue belts were untouchable! With the way things are looking at my school I should have my bluebelt sometime this year (right now I'm a dirty white belt with four stripes), so I now know that the mythe about bluebelts is no longer true.

When I came back from China I was surprised to see on Ralph's website that all those whitebelts I used to roll with were now blackbelts, guys like Mikkyo inspired me to roll again because I realized that it's all about logging in those flight hours. Of course guys like Mikkyo and Luke are gifted but there's space up there for the rest of us as well.

[cerebus]

Hell, that's no big deal. I've had Blue Balls for awhile now. Oh, wait... you said "Belts"... never mind...

[fuga]

Dirty white belt still means I'll be practicing my tapping. There's a fellow at my club who is a four stripe white belt who has taken me under his wing to show teach me how he can pretty much choke me out or armbar me from any position - over and over again. My survival skills are improving.

But, it's like you said - it's all about putting in the mat time and pressuring testing all the techniques and seeing how to fold in the IMA body of knowledge.

Troy, I think Qiphlow take your mind off those Blue Balls. Golf clap...